Little Large Moments
by chwitchety
Summary: 5 Snapshots through Callie and Arizona's life. Starting before the baby trouble began, and ending way after.
1. Chapter 1

SPAIN

Arizona removed the shower-cap from her head, humming tunelessly.

The steam in the bathroom smelt humid and citrus-y, entirely more favourable than her day spent in paediatrics after a gastro break-out.

She appraised her eyebrows in the mirror with her index finger before contemplating the length of her hair. Running her tongue over the front of her teeth, Arizona wondered for the third consecutive month whether rubbing lemon on teeth did indeed have a whitening effect. Because the good lord knew, she warn't giving up coffee for not nobody not no-how.

"Hmmm."

For the third consecutive month, Arizona decided it was, frankly, too much effort and wandered into the bedroom, drying her body with the towel. She could faintly hear Callie talking on the phone in the kitchen as she prepared their dinner. Arizona grinned as she pulled on a pair of track pants. She could smell spag bol.

Pulling on a T-shirt, Arizona let her hair out of the hair clip and opened the bedroom door.

Callie stood behind the breakfast counter, stirring sauce with one hand, while talking on the phone with the other. Her hair was casually pulled back in a pony-tail. Her eyes brightened and lips curled as she spotted Arizona.

"Yo lo sé, Dad, lo supe ayer. She called me."

Arizona beamed in response. Callie's sister had been offered a well-paid job in New York. Also – was it just her? – but Spanglish was totally, unutterably hot. Especially when it was her girlfriend speaking it. Her eyebrow quirked wryly. It was the one 'bi' about Callie that Arizona didn't have an issue with.

Callie had turned back to the cooking.

"No she didn't tell me either. ¿Sabes algo de Jason?"

Callie hugged the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she reached down to open a small tub of tomato puree and subsequently poured it into the mix.

Arizona walked around the counter and came to peer into the saucepan, lifting her nose and smelling the garlic-infused tomato aroma. She subconsciously licked her lower lip.

Callie snorted amusedly, took the phone back in her hand and continued to stir.

"¿Como? Yeah, I'm just cocinando la cena ahora. And Arizona says hi."

She had spoken the last sentence in English and Arizona drew her attention away from the food to Callie's all-too-innocent expression covering a blank face. Arizona's eyes sparkled, mischievous smirk in place, and she stepped closer into her girlfriend sliding her hand onto the small of her back.

"Dad says hi back," relayed Callie. Arizona acknowledged this with slight nod of her head, her eyes not leaving Callie's.

"He also says – Yes! Thank you, Dad! – that YOU should be cooking dinner for ME."

Callie glared at Arizona accusingly.

Arizona rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I'll cook it all the way from that Chinese on 23rd."

Callie's eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised, before turning her attention back to her father on the phone.

Standing so close to Callie as she continued in Spanish on the phone, Arizona could smell her perfume through the bolognese. Intoxicated, she leant forward slightly and pressed a kiss to the clavicle peeping out from the low-cut fitted top Callie was wearing, before resting her chin on her girlfriend's shoulder and turning her head to gaze at her lips.

Callie was smiling softly. She lifted the lid to the pasta saucepan and put it on the counter top before picking up the wooden spoon to scoop a single shell out of the water to taste. She paused as she chewed, then nodded her head and Arizona took a step back.

"Dad, I have to go now. The food is ready. Vale. I love you. Semana proxima I'll call you. Bye."

She hung up the phone as Arizona fetched the strainer from the cupboard and placed it in the sink.

"We've been together for a while now. Do you think your Dad has got used to me yet?"

Callie pandered and pecked Arizona on the cheek as she walked past to collect the boiling pasta.

"He simply loves you," she gushed.

"Yeah, yeah."

Callie poured the pan contents into the strainer.

Arizona's eyes ran the length of her girlfriend's body.

"It's totally hot that you speak Spanish."

Callie sighed.

"It's totally hot that you have blonde hair."

Arizona bit her bottom lip and drummed her fingers on the counter top. Callie replaced the pot on the cooker and returned to the sink to shake out any remaining water from the strained pasta.

"No, seriously, Cal. How many countries speak Spanish? Like a whole heap of South America and, well, Spain speaks Spanish. It should be called Spain-ish. We could go there and you could do the talking and then no-one would bother us as being arrogant, only-English-speaking tourists! It'd be so great!"

Callie raised her eyebrows as she poured the pasta back into the pot on the cooker.

"So you are dating me purely to get an insider's access to Spain and the majority of South America?"

Arizona pulled two bowls out of the cupboard and chose to ignore the comment.

"Let's go to Spain and speak Spain-ish, Callie," she whined and as an afterthought added, "or have you been there already?"

Callie grinned as she began to ladle out the freshly cooked pasta into each bowl.

"Ha. Like that would stop you. Yes, actually. But I was pretty young and it kind of rained the whole time."

"So!" Arizona enthused, "we should go!"

"Tell me when."

"Maybe in March?"

"No, idiot, how much sauce do you want?"

"Oh."

Callie spooned the bolognese over the spaghetti and handed the bowl to Arizona who kissed her for a second too long by way of thank you before whispering, "Sun, sand, surf and pizza. Think about it."

"That's Italy. Pizza is Italian."

Arizona shrugged and thought. "Well, young men killing bulls, then."

Callie stopped spooning sauce and looked at her wryly. "Stick with the beach talk."

"I'll wear a bikini 24 7?"

Callie paused and appraised her girlfriend before returning the saucepan back to the cooker.

Arizona held her breath.

Maybe she should have put on shorts, not track pants.

When Callie turned back to pick up her dinner her eyes were amused.

"That might just do it."

Arizona didn't bother to tell Callie that the bikini clause was automatically applied to her as well. She was already thinking quotes.


	2. Chapter 2

HYPOTHETICALS

She looked so young.

Arizona knew that she, herself, wasn't exactly the beauty school elderly infirm. But Arizona could tell the difference between baby-faced pigtails and wholesome innocence. It was a youthfulness that no amount of hydroxybenzylapatite Pendro-whateverihoo-salicylic acid based creams could achieve.

Callie could just look so young sometimes.

And the poignancy of a love foiled by passing time filled Arizona's heart so full, that she could hardly breathe.

_The gun had been centimetres away._

_She had practically touched it._

_She could see every possibility._

_Grab it. Point it. Drag him out to the cops. Hero. Medal. Next._

_Her surgeon's hand had been shaking as she held out the packaged bandages. The possibility. The potential. The fear. _

_And she had noticed a contrast._

_His was not._

_The steadiness of the man's hand had unnerved her more-so than the actual gun held outstretched._

_And instantaneously she decided she didn't know the situation. He could have a bomb. He could have a back-up pistol. All it took was for her to reach out..._

_It wasn't an offering, but a challenge._

_She could hear whimpering behind her and found herself all too aware of the blonde woman in the room._

_Sometimes being a hero means knowing when to pick your battles._

_She placed the bandages on top of the gun. Her thumb slid barely past the cold metallic barrel._

"_Thankyou."_

_Callie felt nauseas. He spoke as if they were simply two people in a difficult situation bonded now by sympathy. From one victim to another. Two reasonable people deciding: you go your way and I'll go mine. Like he hadn't made this choice. Like she had any choice._

_Had he been surrendering and her act of self-preservation had given him a divine message to continue on his mission?_

"_Thankyou."_

_It didn't bear thinking about._

_She felt prickles behind her eyes and a wave of tenable relief as she watched him slink away. She couldn't tell if his tail was between his legs or if the hair on the back of his neck was beginning to rise aggressively, lips curled in a snarl._

_She shut the door quickly and shuddered. Forgetting. No regrets._

"_Alright."_

_Focused now on the blue-crystal eyes that gazed at her like she was the be all and end all of existence, Callie found her priorities to be greater than survival._

They had stood outside as the ambulance drove off.

Arizona watched Callie out of the corner of her eye. It was odd to be outside in daylight during working hours and the sunlight warmed the icy remnants of fear clutching at Arizona's chest.

They had almost been killed. They had almost been shot. Geezes. It could have been Callie.

Callie's hair glinted in the sun. Arizona was half-afraid to drag her gaze from the ambulance to actually look at Callie.

This was a scenario that friends joked about over coffee.

_'What would you do if there was a man with a gun...'_

A fucking hypothetical.

A non-reality based quiz on morals, values and judgement.

Everyone knew this sort of thing didn't happen in real life, didn't they? It was the kind of thing you read in newspapers and subsequently decided not to read newspapers anymore as they were entirely too depressing filled with stupid people doing stupid things.

Because this was life-changing. This was the kind of thing that broke people.

Arizona always knew this kind of courage was in Callie. A mask upon a mask upon a mask. The tough, leather wearing kick-ass surgeon who was actually a smushy, vulnerable mess looking for love; always had had the underlying strength of a she-lion protecting her cubs. Callie knew right from wrong and was prepared to stand and be counted. And Arizona could sense this.

After today, however, Arizona didn't want to look at Callie and see the sadness, hatred and depressing wisdom in the face of the harsh reality of life that mirrored her own feelings.

But out of the corner of her eye, Arizona noticed, Callie had bit her lip. Pondering.

Callie could just look so young sometimes.

And Arizona felt like every ounce of weight had been lifted off her heart as the sunlight streamed down upon the both of them.

Callie wasn't broken.

She was still whole despite life's curve balls. She was still the girl who could tell right from wrong, but wanted to make sure she had all the angles covered first. Despite everything, she was still gorgeously untouched by the ways of the world and remained the ever-innocent idealist.

Arizona's heart swelled with love and pride. She couldn't speak.

Her eye's lowered trying to find the words. They rested on Callie's heart for a moment before flicking back up to her face asking her to understand the unspoken sentiment.

"I love you."

Callie's eyebrows raised, challenging Arizona to speak up and say as much. A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth at the direction of the unspoken dialogue.

"_Go on. Say it. What?"_

Arizona smiled ruefully. An apology.

"I'm going to help children find their parents."

She turned quickly so she wouldn't have to see Callie's face fall.

"People died."

This was it.

"People died today."

_You could have died._

"And I can't live without you. So if that means no kids, then I don't want kids."

Here it was.

Arizona's moment of courage. A moment of life or death.

And just as Callie had done so earlier in the hour, Arizona fought for her life. Their life. Their children's lives.

"...and I can't live without you and our 10 kids – "

The kiss felt like a new beginning. Like hope. Like forever.

Lips slid over each other as they tried to impress and spell out what words could not. As public propriety slipped back into their respective conscious, Arizona broke the kiss and rested her forehead against her newly re-instated girlfriend's.

Utterly contented, Callie had rested her hands over Arizona's hips as Arizona caressed her shoulders, unwilling to release her cherished connection. She sighed reservedly.

"I should really go sort things out on the paeds floor."

"Sure."

Arizona grimaced before pecking Callie on the lips and turning to leave.

Callie grabbed her wrist and pulled Arizona back into her body to press another frantic kiss to her lips.

"I love you," she murmured against Arizona's skin.

Arizona drank in the vital attention she had been missing for the past week. She gasped as she accepted Callie's possessive tongue then finished the kiss definitively before the PDA got too out of hand. She squeezed Callie's hand as she turned to leave for the second time.

"Mmmmffph-"

Arizona was once again dragged back into the warm and waiting body with its expressive mouth.

"10 kids...it's too many."

Arizona laughed between the kisses being lavished upon her.

"Nine then."

Callie stopped her administrations to give a huge grin to Arizona.

"You get the part! Now go save lives and help the people."

Arizona felt slightly put out by the sudden cease of lovin', but Callie had already started to walk over to the police vehicles. Arizona exhaled regretfully as she watched Callie's scrub-hidden figure retreat, but before she could turn to head back to the paediatric patients,

"Hey!"

Callie had turned and, fishing something out of her scrub pocket, lobbed it in Arizona's direction.

The key caught the sunlight as it hurtled through the air to land in Arizona's palm. Evidently, Callie had been carrying Arizona's copy of the key to her apartment with her for the entire past week of break-up.

She looked back up to Callie, eyes sparkling mischievously. Accusing. Ecstatic.

Callie held her arms outstretched and wore a long-suffering look of tedium.

"What!"

Sometimes she could just look so young that Arizona fair thought her heart might break.


	3. Chapter 3

PREGNANT

The lock clicked open as the key twisted and slid out of the slot.

Ever so quietly, Arizona turned the door-handle and inched the door open, sliding through and into the dark apartment.

Not bothering to turn on the lights, Arizona quickly closed the door behind her before turning to make her way silently to their bedroom. The room was clothed in the electronic light of the microwave digital clock.

Arizona startled.

The 00:03 had revealed Callie to be sitting on the couch.

The shadows made it difficult to see, but the slight head movement and soft sigh informed Arizona that Callie was indeed awake. And apparently waiting for her.

Arizona spoke, "I didn't think you'd still be up?"

Her body unfroze and she walked over to the breakfast counter to drop her handbag on one of the stools.

"Surprise."

The monotone was neutral and unreadable.

Arizona took a steadying breath, walked over to Callie and stood uncomfortably.

"I got caught up at work. But you've been so tired recently, you should really be getting all the rest pos-"

"Don't."

Arizona wasn't sure how to take this. Was it 'don't patronise me' or 'don't come any closer'? Worse still was it 'don't talk to me'? Her jaw tightened.

Callie's hands rested on her 7½ month burgeoning abdomen. Her eyes fell from steadfastly examining her nailpolish to Arizona's boots. Time elapsed.

Arizona stared for a moment at her heavily pregnant girlfriend who was silently contemplating her footwear, before beginning to step around the couch intending to go to the bedroom.

"Is it someone else?"

The voice was low, to hide the waver, and stopped Arizona in her tracks.

"What? Callie – no! Why would you...? What gave you that-"

Callie's eyes whipped up like lasers. Bright.

"Don't lie to me."

Arizona paused.

She took a step closer before sitting on the coffee table, directly in Callie's eye-line.

A breath.

"Calliope, no. The answer is no."

The tension in Callie's shoulders seemed to dissipate into the couch as she exhaled.

"Then what is it?"

Arizona made the conscious decision to be confused.

"What is what, Callie? I've just been stressed out and caught up at work recently. Today it was this three year old with an opioid overdose after the back-pain dad left his medication next to the high chair, can you believe? I was going to call you, but things just got crazy when a kid with a dog bite came in after the parents had encouraged their kid to hug the dog during its dinner and it just kept on chewi..."

Her voice petered out. Callie was close to tears.

The silence echoed the question.

Callie took a shaky breath.

"I don't know what's wrong. Have I made a mistake? What have I done? You come home at all hours of the night so I am asleep and barely touch me. I feel like I hardly see you anymore even though this is the time we should be strong and together for each other. This is a life-changing experience and you aren't home and I don't know how to reach you."

Arizona blinked.

Callie's voice grew stronger.

"And you are perfect on paper, Arizona. I've been trying to figure it out. It's not the baby. You've got the ultrasound picture in your wallet and show it to all and sundry and the dog on the street. You've been picking out cots and way too many baby clothes with cutesy tigger designs on them with your mom. Sorting out our leave. And I'm grateful. And I love that. But the minute we are alone? I don't know. Have I done something? What is it?"

Arizona sighed and shifted slightly. Callie was glad the shadows in the room hid the tears she felt brimming along her lower eyelids.

"I mean, it has to be me – right? You have been," Callie raised her eyes heavenward before gazing back to Arizona, "everything to me. Everything. Attentive and helpful and just plain out and out wonderful. But, you hardly touch me. Arizona, we haven't had sex in over a month and now you're coming home late. Is it my body? Is the pregnant thing a turn off? Are things going too fast? You say it's not someone else and I believe you with my whole heart, but then – what is it?"

Arizona sat on the coffee table, shoulders hunched, as she looked at the floor and pursed her lips. She heard the couch cushions shift as Callie sat forward and gently rested her hand on Arizona's knee.

Callie's shoulders shrugged as she shook her head and asked again.

"What is it?"

As if it were so simple. As if Arizona would have the answer on the tip of her tongue and all she needed to do was to open her mouth and just say it.

"I don't know."

An acknowledgement. Yes, she knew things had been off lately.

"I love you."

A statement. A truth.

"I love our child."

A question?

Callie waited. She had heard the unconvinced tone of the last sentence and it tore at her heart.

"I just...I feel distant."

Arizona looked directly at Callie.

"I love you. I can't live without you. I am happy for us and this next step in our relationship. I am so excited for you, having the baby. I'm trying to feel excited for me, but I'm not there yet. Things are happening and I don't feel connected. And out of control, I guess."

Her eyes drifted to Callie's especially ample bosom and she gave a sad smile.

"And the sexy pregnant thing isn't a problem. You are just, so, so precious to me right now and I feel like I should be wearing a rubber band around my wrist to snap away all the illicit, explicit thoughts I get. I want things to be perfect for you."

"You are perfect," Callie exhaled, relieved, "and I need you to be a part of this. You and me. If you aren't here – I don't know if I could cope."

Callie lifted her hand to her girlfriend's cheek and attempted to lean forward as far as her belly would allow. Arizona crossed the distance remaining to press a small kiss to the other's lips.

"We'll get through this," Callie whispered against Arizona's face before picking up her hands and placing them against her abdomen.

"This is our baby. Ours."

Arizona nodded.

"I know."

But she hadn't made eye contact.


	4. Chapter 4

BABY FOOD

She gripped the knife in a clenched fist.

It was sharp.

It would cut.

It would be quick.

Arizona narrowed her eyes.

The baby was smiling.

She ran a finger over the chubby cheek, lingering in contemplation.

She placed her hand over the pudgy arm and raised the knife. Arm poised.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Arizona's head whipped up at Callie's hysteria-edged voice. Callie, eyes blazing, marched indignantly from the hallway into the kitchen where Arizona stood at the counter.

Arizona looked desperately between the knife and cardboard box of nappies she was steadying with her hand, trying to figure out exactly what it was that she had been caught at, red-handed.

"Just...sticky-tape. I'm opening the box. There's sticky-tape." Arizona gestured towards the box with the point of the knife, before brandishing it in the air like a good idea, "Sticky-tape."

The winful logic was in vain.

"Not with my best meat knife, you're not. You must be joking. And stop saying 'sticky-tape'."

Arizona handed the knife, super sharp for a – now evident – reason, handle-first into the awaiting upturned palm.

"Sticky-tape," she muttered as Callie turned to replace the knife back in its rightful drawer.

"Yeah. I heard that."

Arizona pouted.

"Here, use this." Callie handed Arizona the Stanley knife.

The change in her demeanour was instantaneous. "Wow! I totally didn't know I had one of these here!" She flicked the knife out of the sheath and began on the box.

Callie rolled her eyes. "You didn't."

Sticky-tape surmounted, Arizona wasn't about to let anything harsh her mellow. Dropping the Stanley knife, re-sheathed of course, onto the counter, she slid her hands up Callie's arms and circled her neck.

"Well, I do now."

Arizona pressed a soft kiss to Callie's lips. They had been gradually moving their things into Arizona's apartment ever since Callie had fallen pregnant. Three weeks before the birth, the move had become permanent. Cristina had promptly relocated her library of textbooks.

"Now? Try three months."

Arizona reciprocated Callie's grin. She glanced back at her handiwork.

"I'm pretty sure the check-out girl thought I had, like, 16 kids or something."

Callie surveyed the pink box with gleeful babies giggling delightedly on it.

"Well, 220 is a bit excessive, Arizona."

"E tu, Brutus? I'm economizing. Buy in bulk."

Callie raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, and when the end of the financial year comes around, I can be sure we will be thanking our lucky stars for those two extra dollars we've saved."

"And I'll take that two dollars to the two dollar shop, and then we'll see who's laughing."

Arizona attempted to emphasise with attitude, staring at Callie imposingly.

Callie glanced around the room willing there to be a witness to the ridiculous, before looking back at Arizona.

"Yeah. Me. Uproariously. And probably the people in the two dollar shop too."

Arizona removed her arms from Callie's neck exasperatedly.

"Help me unload the shopping bags."

"No."

Callie, petulant at the loss of Arizona's warmth, reached out and slid her arms around her waist, pulling her in tight again.

"I wanna kiss on you some."

Arizona's face broke into a wide lipped smile.

"Really?" Her tone was coquettish as she dodged Callie's lunging lips.

"Mmm-hmm."

"'Cause there's beef that needs to be put in the fridge."

Callie, frustrated at Arizona's teasing, was not to be distracted.

"Is that a euphemism for something?"

Arizona laughed and acquiesced, kissing Callie and pressing her body into her partner's. The affectionate nibbling began to deepen into a rhythmic exploration until...

"Uff."

Callie pulled back archly as one of Arizona's jacket buttons pulled across a sensitive breast. She had been breastfeeding for two months, so far, since the baby had been born, and sore, leaky boobs was just one of the many joys of pregnancy Callie had experienced.

"Oh! Callie! Sorry! Is it okay?"

Arizona's hand ran up from Callie's waist to cup the offended breast and ran her thumb, lovingly, over its lactation-enhanced curve. She looked up at Callie, half-worried.

Callie took a breath.

"It's fine."

Arizona's eyes glinted wickedly.

"D'you want me to kiss it better?"

Ever so slightly, Callie licked her lips. She stepped out of Arizona's embrace and picked up one of the shopping bags, rifling through it.

"Maybe later. My girlfriend told me I had to put the beef in the fridge."

Arizona hated to be outplayed.

"As a euphemism. It was a euphemism."

Callie held up the package of meat she had pulled from the bag triumphantly.

Arizona glared.

"You're just lucky I like you."

_It had been 10 hours of contractions. 10 hours of slightly awkward silences and small talk with the midwives on shift. 10 hours for Arizona to contemplate her imminent motherhood._

_At times, she didn't know whether she was holding Callie's hand, or if it was the other way around._

_Arizona found herself focusing on Callie's eyes._

_Callie. Callie. Callie. Callie._

_In the rest between contractions (at the beginning), Callie had asked her about excited she was. Arizona decided, as the contraction hit again, that Callie was being rhetorical and she chose not to answer._

_To top it all off, Callie's parents were arriving directly. Her own parents would be there within the next day._

_Arizona suddenly had a sympathy for those who suffered from vertigo. Everything was going 100 miles an hour. The world was spinning._

_She anchored herself in Callie's eyes._

_Callie. Callie. Callie. Callie._

_Her knuckles were white when the tiny wail went up and stopped time._

_Callie. Callie. Callie. Callie._

"_It's a boy."_

_Callie. Callie. Callie. Callie._

_The tiny naked child was placed unceremoniously against Callie's bare chest._

_Arizona looked._

_And suddenly, the world became technicolour._

_Callie was sobbing intermittently, in overwhelmed exhaustion. Tearing her gaze from the child, she looked at her partner._

"_Arizona."_

_Arizona lent forward and kissed her lovingly, hardly daring to touch the barely-minute new life. The midwife was not so timid. She picked up the child, as the doctor continued to work between Callie's legs, and placed him on the resus trolley to check him and clean him. The indignant scream shattered Arizona's heart forever._

"_Here you go."_

_The now wrapped bundle of baby was thrust in Arizona's direction._

_Her hands were shaking._

_She almost laughed at the thought that she might drop it. Then she almost cried._

_She held out her arms. And her son was placed in them._

_He was feather-light._

_Her arms felt brick-heavy._

_Her son._

_The dark tuft of black hair contrasted with his pale skin._

_His eyes opened. Blue._

_She had looked up at Callie, eyes tearing and face swollen with emotion._

"_I don't know if this is the right time to tell you this, but for the first time, I've fallen in love with a man."_

_Callie's face broke into a radiant smile, labour pain already forgotten._

"_Me too. You're just lucky I like you."_

Arizona snuck her arm around Callie, her body covering her back as they lay in bed. Callie sleepily pressed back in order to minimise the distance between them.

The questing hand at the end of the arm slid its way up Callie's body, gently encompassing a generous breast.

"What do you think you're doing, then?

Callie's tone was mildly amused.

Acknowledgement made Arizona bolder.

"Maybe later, remember? You said I could kiss it better 'maybe later'."

Callie pushed backwards in a way that made Arizona gasp.

"I said 'maybe'. As in 'maybe but not probably later'."

"Callie," Arizona whined, "Maybe now?"

She supplemented her plea with open-mouthed kisses over her neck and gentle massaging of Callie's breast. Callie's breath quickened. Arizona felt Callie's fitted top moisten.

"Look what you've gone and done now. You've made me leak."

Arizona perked up and raised herself on her elbow.

"You're so right. Let me have a look."

Callie turned to face Arizona, entertained.

"Leaking means baby-time, not Arizona-time."

"Baby has moved to the other room for the past week and he doesn't have to know."

Arizona shifted her weight to straddle Callie as her hands slid under the her top to caress her chest and simultaneously kissed Callie, assertively entering her mouth with her tongue and dragging it leisurely along her palate.

Callie groaned encouragingly.

But she wasn't the only one making noise.

The baby monitor on the side of the bed crackled into life. A sniffle. Which quickly became a steady cry.

"Shoot!"

Callie's body reacted to the crying baby. Arizona sat upright and removed her now milk-damp hands. She licked one and rubbed the other on the bed sheet. Callie watched her and smirked.

"I told you. Baby-time."

Arizona sighed and looked at the monitor.

"Yeah, well five minutes more and he could have had milkshake."

Callie pushed herself up onto her elbows, trapped by Arizona.

"No, don't worry, I'll get him."

Arizona made to get up, but not before grinding her hips down, which made Callie exhale and fall off her elbows onto her back again.

"Evil."

"And yet, you love me."

Arizona walked out of the master bedroom across the hall into the originally-a-guest-room-now-the-baby's-room room.

She turned on the lamp and turned off the baby monitor.

Hands gently resting against the crib, she looked down at the wide-awake baby staring up at her, who was pausing to comprehend whose attention he had managed to pull and whether he needed to cry some more.

Was it possible to have this much love for another human being?

The baby began to snivel. Obviously, he had realized that this person had no food.

"Hey, hey! It's okay, baby. Come to Mommy."

She lifted him out of the cot.

"Mommy is here, George."


	5. Chapter 5

FRIDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

"Good boy, George."

Arizona watched, amused, as the two-year old attempted to push the twice-his-height pram that she steadied with her hands on the handlebar, controlling the speed.

George paid little heed to the encouragement, determinedly independent, with his mind focused on the task in hand, legs tottering at great pace.

"We're going to go and pick up Grandma, baby."

George continued to ignore her, a man on a mission.

Arizona had just collected him from the hospital crèche, it being her half day, in order to pick up her mother from the airport. They were running late, a detail Arizona had optimistically decided to not factor into the equation despite Callie's forewarning otherwise. Her partner's look of disbelief had been all Arizona needed to defiantly stick to her belief that 'of course' things would run smoothly and that 'yes, I do know exactly how long it takes to drive to the airport, thank you'. Retrospect was 20/20, and Arizona was not looking forward to the gleeful 'I told you so' that Callie would most probably, almost definitely, rub in her face.

Mother and son continued through the hospital corridors as Arizona directed the pram past the X-ray conference room. The door was open and Callie was in the midst of running an intern-teaching session. Her eyes flicked over to Arizona and a smile immediately engrossed her features as she took in the pair, while continuing to lecture. Arizona gave a quick wave and reciprocal grin, but proceeded past the door for fear that George would notice his other mother and become difficult. They'd see Callie tonight.

And Arizona was running late, dammit.

They had reached the elevator and Arizona decided that progress was entirely too slow, tiny legs being the rate-determining factor, and picked George up to place him into the pram as they moved between floors.

Fairly indignant at this lack of respect for his efforts, George began to wail. Loudly.

"Yeah, I know sweetheart, but we have to hurry for Grandma."

He only squirmed more. Large blue eyes beneath a shaggy mop of black hair began to well.

"No!"

"Come on Georgie, sit still, baby."

George was having none of it.

"No!"

The elevator pinged open and Arizona knew when she was beat. George sitting in the pram was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. She hastily compromised before the elevator doors opened and lifted the two year-old onto her hip. If anything, he was Callie's son – stubborn and had Arizona completely wrapped around their little fingers.

So annoying.

The trip to the airport had been uneventful and surprisingly smooth, which, Arizona felt, validated her original time-line estimation.

Arizona's mother, Deborah, had taken the opportunity of her husband's 'Old Boys' Fishing Trip Weekend' to visit her grandchild.

Deborah Robbins, standing a head shorter than her daughter, was a formidable woman of 62 years. Somewhat plump and prone to wearing floral patterns, she had a 39 year marriage to a military man and 3 children under her belt. She was an effusive, kind woman, but a woman not to be crossed.

Arizona's blonde hair had stood out before she could find her mother, only spotting her when a large amount of pastel pink had hurtled in Arizona's direction at no small velocity.

"Mom!"

The hug was strong, if brief, and Arizona's hip lacked a child as they pulled apart.

As Grandmother began the requisite cooing and coddling, Arizona rolled her eyes amusedly.

"C'mon then, let's get out of here.'

They had dropped the luggage back at home, before making a picnic lunch and meandering over to the neighbourhood park to spend the afternoon.

"I didn't think I'd see this."

The comment lingered and Arizona glanced at her mother, sitting next to her on the park bench, in question.

At that moment, George decided vigorously banging on the end of the slide with both his hands was not as fun as anticipated, and squat down to put a wood chip in his mouth. Arizona noticed.

"No, George, don't eat that. Don't...uff..."

She pushed herself off the bench and stepped over to remove the chip from her son's mouth.

"My food isn't that bad, y'know, you don't need to resort to this."

She held up the offending chip, which the child promptly reached for, fingers clutching.

"No, baby, wood is pretty gross for eating. Yucky. Uh-uh." She shook her head for emphasis.

"Uh-uh"

"That's right, baby, uh-uh, yucky-doo-daa."

Thinking her wood chip PSA had reached across age and developmental barriers, Arizona sat George on the bottom of the slide and turned to sit back on the bench.

"Mom-mom-mom-mom-mom-mom-mom."

The two-year old had slid off the edge and began to chase after her, before stopping abruptly when he realized the object of his attention was abundant under his feet. George squat down again and immediately shoved a handful of wood chips into his mouth.

"George!" Arizona cried exasperatedly.

Deborah Robbins laughed uproariously as wood chips began to, one-by-one, fall out of George's mouth, a look of pure disgust on his face.

"Yucky."

"Yeah, I told you that, Stephen Hawking."

Arizona picked him up and handed him to his still mirthful Grandmother.

"What do you mean 'you didn't see this'?"

Deborah Robbins looked up from her grandson, knowingly. She pressed a kiss to the child's dark hair.

"This."

Her lips pursed as Arizona remained silent. Deborah looked out over the playground. The sun was starting to get low in the sky and the clouds had taken on a faint pink tinge.

"Since you were 19, you had always said 'no kids' and I had come to accept that. So I didn't think I would ever have this." She clutched around the squirming boy's waist.

Arizona acquiesced.

"Things change."

Her mother looked back over to her.

"You've changed."

Arizona's eyes narrowed, thoughtful. "I'm happy, Mom."

George clambered up onto his Grandmother's lap and slapped a pudgy hand against her cheek before trying to poke her in the eye.

"Me too, darling."

"Let me get that for you, Deb."

Callie rose from her seat and reached for her partner's mother's empty bowl.

"No, no! You made dinner, so let me do the washing up."

Callie just laughed as she picked up the cutlery.

"We are surgeons, Mom. We can actually afford a dishwasher, y'know." Arizona remarked wryly.

Deborah Robbins looked pointedly at her daughter before calling out, "The rhubarb pie was delicious, Callie."

Arizona sat upright in her chair, aggrieved. "What if I had made it?"

Callie walked back into the dining room from the kitchen, grinning.

"Says the woman who tried to add a cup of baking soda to pastry."

Arizona slumped back, petulant.

"Yeah, well, I blame the parents."

"Darling, I never taught you how to make explosive shortbread, you learned that on your own."

"George, come to Mommy, they're picking on me!"

The two year old, scribbling on some paper on the floor, looked up and regarded her with mild interest before continuing to Picasso his way over to the skirting board.

"Ah-ah-aah," Callie exclaimed as she swooped to pick him up, "Bedtime for you, I think."

"Uh-uh."

Callie looked startled at the assertion of personality.

"Yuh-huh."

Before George could begin the nightly bedtime battle, Callie turned to face Deborah, eyes hopeful.

"What if Grandma reads you a bed-time story?"

The baby instantaneously leaned out of his mother's arms to attempt a gravity defying leap towards his grandmother.

"Hey, hey! Kiss for Ma first."

Knowing a compromise when he saw one, George smacked his tiny lips against his mother's and once again leaned dangerously in Grandma's direction. Deborah Robbins stepped out of her seat and took the child from Callie. "I would love that, Georgie." Callie mouthed a 'thank you'.

Finding themselves alone, Callie sunk into the chair beside Arizona's, her head resting on folded arms watching the doorway her son and his grandmother had passed through. Arizona's hand shot out to gently caress and trace over her partner's back.

"I love you."

Callie never did grow tired of hearing that. She smiled and turned her head, resting on her arms, to face Arizona.

"I had a clue."

The caressing hand had moved, from upper back to lower back to just plain low.

"I really, really love you, you know that?"

Callie's eyes widened before sitting up straight in the chair and staring at Arizona, accusingly.

"Arizona, I am not having sex in the dining room with you while your mother is in the next room reading 'World's Greatest Trucks' to our son."

"Or are you?"

"Basically not, actually."

Arizona grumbled as she picked up the glasses on the table and wandered into the kitchen. Callie followed with the cream pitcher. After placing the cups in the dishwasher, Arizona found herself being pulled up into an embrace.

One arm over a shoulder, one arm under, they remained in silence for minute upon minute. The sway was gentle and Arizona felt like their hearts were communicating directly with each other through chest walls. The scent was, as always, intoxicating and Arizona breathed deeply, even as she heard Callie doing the same. Her eyes drifted shut as Arizona became overwhelmed by the silence and was deafened by Callie's closeness. The sweetness of the moment neared agonising as both knew it would come to an end.

"Ari?"

Arizona hummed her response, unwilling to let go.

"I said dining room, not kitchen."

It took a minute to register, before Arizona pulled back to look Callie in the face.

She placed a peck to Callie's lips.

"Not a chance, Prude-y McBig-Talk, my mother is in the next room reading 'Trucks and their many Habitations' to our child."

"'World's Greatest Trucks'."

"Whatever."

Arizona silenced the retort about to form on Callie's lips with a kiss.

"Just a white for me, Calliope," she called over her shoulder as she beat a hasty retreat to the living room.

Callie realized for the millionth time that week, exactly how much Arizona had her around her little finger.

"Yeah, yeah."

So annoying.


End file.
